


All It Takes

by vials



Category: Villains Series - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Generally Being Dicks, Kidnapping, eli proves times and time again that he thinks absolutely nothing through, poor sydney learns a few Nasty Truths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-16 02:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19308559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vials/pseuds/vials
Summary: “She’s fine,” Eli said vaguely. “But you have ten seconds to persuade me not to shoot her in, oh… three minutes?”“You’ll do what you want regardless of what I do, Ever,” Victor growled. “Why don’t you be honest with me and tell me what you want me to do?”Eli smiled. “I want to hear you beg.”Here are the three things Eli knows: one, Victor Vale is still alive; two, any kind of interaction with him will likely end terribly; and three, regardless of all this, Eli really wants to see him terrified. When he spots Sydney leaving the motel room unattended, Eli is pretty sure he knows exactly how to make that last one happen.





	All It Takes

**Author's Note:**

> Set in some vague undefined time between the first and second books.

Eli Ever didn’t know much about his new situation, considering the fact it was frequently kept from him and changed at a moments’ whim, but over the years he had worked out two things for certain. It was a classic case of there being good news and bad news, and as was Eli’s preference, he got the bad news first.

The bad news was that Victor Vale was alive again, but Eli hadn’t exactly found himself surprised. The second that Stell had told him – irritably, as he had kept asking – that Victor’s body had been buried rather than burned, Eli had thrown himself back in his seat and rolled his eyes, wondering, sincerely, what the detective could possibly think would come from that. It was still bad news, but not the unexpected kind of bad news, which Eli always found was the worst kind of bad news to receive. 

The good news was that Eli had proven himself worth his weight in gold when it came to aiding Stell in his endless task of hunting down EOs, and over the past few years Eli had earned himself a very long leash. He thought that the secret to his success had been the fact he had been open about the fact he preferred to work alone from the beginning; that his best work was a solitary thing, and of course at first Stell had been vehemently opposed to allowing Eli out of sight. But Eli had played nice, and Eli had done everything he had been told, and Eli had been perfect. Gradually the leash had been lengthened out of necessity; Eli’s other secret to success was undeniably the fact that he looked natural anywhere, and could blend in to places that Stell and his men could never dream of going unnoticed. Now he had reached the point where an absence of days would be permitted, and an absence of hours barely noticed. 

So, these were the two things he knew. He went over them as he sat in the car in a dark corner of the lot, his fingers numb with the cold – the windows were open a crack to prevent his body heat from steaming up the glass. It seemed simple when he broke it down. Victor Vale was alive, and Eli was now in a position to do something about it. 

He hadn’t deliberately tried to find Victor, because that would have been too obvious. Stell was still under the impression that Victor was dead, and Eli wanted to keep it that way. As it happened, though, he and Victor simply crossed paths, which was one of those divine coincidences that always brought a smile to Eli’s face. They had been in the same area long enough that Eli had even managed to get an idea of their loose schedule – because of course the four of them had stuck together – and from there it was all easy. It was easy to work his watches into the things he was supposed to be doing. It was easy to convince Stell that he was up to nothing untoward. It was easy to let Victor go unbothered at first, even though seeing him again had made Eli clench his fists and choke on his breath. It was easy to bide his time until it was Sydney who stepped out of the motel room, looking more like Serena than ever and with the huge dog at her side, and with that in mind it was easy to let her walk past the car and it was easy to slip out after her and it was even east to grab her, in the end. 

_Grabbing_ her had been easy. Dragging her off the sidewalk and over to the car was another thing altogether, because she fought hard and Dol fought harder. Sydney was still small for her age but desperation had made her insanely strong, and Eli thought the only reason he was able to hold on to her at all was because she hadn’t seen his face. No doubt if she’d known it was him she would have fought even harder, but it was dark and Eli was quick and he somehow managed to throw her into the trunk of the car, kicking at the dog as it lunged for him again. Eli slammed the trunk shut, and dodged around to the driver’s side, shutting the door on the dog’s snapping jaws and wasting no time in getting out of there. Glancing in the rearview mirror as he joined the road, Eli saw the dog had given up chasing the car and was instead running back towards the motel room, no doubt to alert Victor. Eli smiled. He could be sure, then, that Victor would be suitably worked up by the time he got in touch, though of course the dog wouldn’t be able to tell him who had taken Sydney, and Victor had no reason to suspect Eli at all. Eli wondered if part of him would suspect anyway; if he would tell himself he was being irrational but find himself incapable of shaking the feeling. Eli hoped so.

He drove quickly but not recklessly, heading away from the city’s outskirts. His clothing was sticking to his arms, soaked through with blood, and he could feel the skin knitting back together on his forearms and his calves; the damn dog had ripped chunks out of him. His driving improved as the tendons and nerves in his left hand healed, his grip tightening and the act of driving the car becoming less painful. Two of his fingers had almost been torn off, and as they reattached themselves Eli shook his head in disbelief. He hadn’t thought the dog had it in him. 

He could hear Sydney in the back, kicking her feet against everything she could and yelling various threats at him. Her voice was muffled but Eli could hear she meant it, and he bit back the urge to tell her she sounded just like Victor. Sydney, too, had no idea that he was behind this, and Eli hoped to keep the element of surprise for a moment longer. Once they hit the freeway, he turned the radio on loud, so she would know it was all useless. To her credit, it didn’t stop her.

They drove for around an hour. The freeway grew smaller, losing a few lanes, and the trees either side of the road grew closer until they bordered it. Eli kept a steady pace, knowing the road well. Soon he was slowing the car’s speed and turning off, rocking down a dirt track as fast as he could get away with. Sydney would be more than a little bruised by the time they arrived, he was sure, but he couldn’t say he was overly concerned. 

By the time he stopped the car, she was quiet. He had no idea what she was doing: maybe she was just exhausted, or maybe she was planning something. Eli wasn’t overly concerned about that, either. He sat for a moment with the headlights off, waiting until his eyes had adjusted to the dark, and then he leaned forward slightly and squinted at the building in front of him. He had found it a few weeks back, and at one point it must have been a handsome house. Now it was falling into more than disrepair; it was a wreck, half of the roof caved in on one side and large holes in the wrap-around porch. The ground floor and the basement were stable, though – Eli had checked. Besides, it wasn’t as though he would have to be here long. 

He pushed the door open and climbed out, the cold air hitting him abruptly. They weren’t that far away from the city, but it seemed the temperature was even colder here. Eli could see the tips of the grass and shrubbery were sparkling white, and the sky above was clear. He crunched around to the back of the car, braced himself for inevitable pain, and hit the button to pop the trunk. 

He had expected Sydney to fight back, of course, but he hadn’t expected her to shoot him. That was exactly what she did, however. She had moved herself into position at some point on the drive, and when he opened the trunk she was already pointing the handgun at him, gripping it tightly with both hands, and he had barely time to recognise it for what it was before there was a loud crack and Eli felt something slam into his neck, ripping right through his spine. For a moment he was paralysed; he briefly hit the floor before the injury began healing itself, and by the time he had stumbled to his feet Sydney had managed to climb out of the trunk. She made it a couple of steps before Eli grabbed her, pushing her back against the car with enough force to knock the breath out of her, and she went to hit him with the weapon before her eyes fell on the wound in his throat. Eli could feel it pulling back together, felt it as the wound vanished as though it had never been there, and Sydney’s eyes widened. 

“ _You,_ ” she gasped, and then she really did struggle. 

Eli had been right when he had guessed she would fight twice as hard if she knew it was him. By the time he had managed to pin her down long enough to get the handcuffs on her they were both a little more roughed up than he would have liked. He sincerely hadn’t wanted to hurt her too much at this point, but it had been the only way in the end. Even he found himself slightly breathless as they lay there, Sydney twisting against the cuffs and yelling, and Eli keeping her pinned to the ground.

“You can shut up, if you like,” he eventually said, when he had the breath to. “There’s no one for miles around.”

“What do you _want_?” Sydney demanded, but Eli could hear how her voice went high at the end, and he knew her anger had bled away to fear. “If you want to kill me, why are you doing it like this?”

“Maybe I don’t want to kill you,” Eli replied, using her moment of shock to haul her to her feet. With that in mind, he bit back the _yet_.

“So what do you want?” Sydney repeated, as he pushed her towards the house. “How did you get out of prison?”

“What, you think Victor is the only one who can manage that?” Eli asked, giving a small smile. “Please.”

“You killed him,” Sydney said. She was speaking quicker now; Eli could feel her beginning to tremble. “You got what you wanted.”

“And you ruined it,” Eli said. He pushed her up the steps and over to the gaping hole where a front door had once been. “Really, you only have yourself to blame for this.”

They went through to one of the back rooms – perhaps it had been a dining room at one point, but now it was devoid of all furniture and belongings aside from a set of ragged curtains still hanging loosely from the window. Eli kicked Sydney’s legs out from under her and she thudded hard to the floor with a soft gasp. Eli moved to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall, watching her. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. 

“So what do you want, then?” Sydney asked, once again, and while her voice was slightly steadier Eli recognised the look on her face – the scared look of the twelve year old he had met, eyes wide and teary. “You can’t expect me to believe you did this for the fun of it.”

“Leverage,” Eli said, simply. “The less time Victor has to plan, the better, I think.”

“I suppose it went badly for you last time, huh?” Sydney asked, her eyes glittering in a way that was too much like Serena’s _gotcha_ look, and Eli fought the urge to look away.

“It all worked out in the end,” he said simply, and then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “I’m sure you remember his number.”

“What if I didn’t give it to you?” Sydney asked, jutting her chin out slightly, and Eli rolled his eyes.

“Then I’d shoot you, leave you in the woods, and think of something else,” he replied. “You’re not special, Sydney. You’re just convenient.”

She stared at him for a long moment, and then she shook her head. “You’re just going to bring him here to kill him. I can’t do that.”

“Surely you can just bring him back,” Eli said, drily, and she looked at him sharply.

“You’d let me live?” she asked, snorting. “You expect me to believe that?”

Eli smiled. “You _have_ learned.”

He stepped closer, dodging as she kicked at him. He crouched down at her side and quickly searched her pockets, pulling out her cell phone and waving it triumphantly. “Think I’ll find it in here?”

“Fuck you,” Sydney said, narrowing her eyes, but Eli caught how quickly she was blinking. 

There weren’t many contacts in the phone. Eli recognised them all: Mitch, Dominic, Victor, and strangely, Serena. He looked at it and raised his eyebrows, looking at Sydney, and she met his gaze defiantly, as though daring him to say anything. He simply gave a small shrug, and hit Victor’s number. 

He was amused to hear that Victor picked up right away. Eli held the phone almost delicately and slightly away from his ear, a small smile playing on his lips as Victor’s urgent voice came through the line. 

“Syd? Syd, are you there?”

Eli could hear the others in the background, as well as what appeared to be tyres on the road. They were driving around looking for her.

“Is she there?” Mitch asked. He sounded just as tense as Victor. 

“ _Syd_?” Victor demanded. “Can you hear me?”

“Maybe she can’t talk,” someone else said; Eli supposed this must be Dominic, and he realised, with a slight raise of his eyebrow, that this was the first time he had heard the man’s voice. “Is there any way we could trace it?”

“Not really,” Mitch replied. “Not to a specific location, anyway, and not while I’m driving around.”

Sydney had been watching silently the whole time, and Eli kept his gaze on her. She had been trying to work out if the call had connected, he knew, and now she could hear the buzz of voices down the line she was clearly weighing up her options. Eli hoped she would shout, and he kept his gaze defiant, as though daring her not to. Of course, it worked. She looked as though she were briefly struggling against the idea, and then she shook her head, her breathing suddenly heavy. 

“Don’t listen to him!” she yelled, and her voice sounded thicker now; close to tears. “Vic, don’t listen to him, don’t—”

Eli ended the call. Sydney let out a long breaths, blinking rapidly. 

“He sounds worried,” Eli said conversationally, and Sydney sniffed.

“What are you going to do to him?”

“Haven’t decided yet,” Eli said dismissively, now looking at the phone again. Sure enough, it lit up with a call; Eli let it ring for several seconds, and then hit _Accept_. “Hello, Victor.”

There was a long pause, and when Victor finally spoke, Eli could practically hear how tightly his jaw was clenched. “Eli.”

Eli heard movement in the background, and he heard Dominic’s voice curse at the same time as a _you’re fucking kidding me_ from Mitch. Eli bit his lip to keep himself from smiling too much. 

“This changes things up a bit, doesn’t it?” he asked. “Last time, it was you giving me a surprise phone call. I think you told me midnight then. Consider it the same this time. If you can find us, that is.”

“Victor, _don’t_ —”

“Shut up,” Eli snapped. “Or listen to her and don’t bother. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“If you hurt her,” Victor said slowly, and Eli could hear his nails against the phone; he was trembling. “I will make you curse the day you lost the ability to die.”

“Very presumptuous to assume that someone hasn’t already beaten you to that,” Eli said drily, even if the words twisted something in his stomach. “I won’t _hurt_ her, Victor. I’ve never been into torture. You have until midnight. If you’re not here, I promise to make it quick.”

He hung up again, and then turned the phone off. 

“How do you expect him to find us all the way out here?” Sydney demanded, and Eli laughed.

“I don’t.” He put the phone in his pocket and smiled, glancing at his watch. “It’s a few hours away yet, but I sincerely doubt he’ll work it out. I’m sure he’ll realise soon enough.”

“So you’re just going to kill me?” Sydney asked bluntly. “All of this was just to make him suffer? I thought you said you wanted leverage.”

“I do,” Eli said. “I’m sure Victor will think of something else in the meantime.”

“You said you didn’t want him to have too much time to plan.”

“I don’t,” Eli replied. He swapped his weight to his other leg and leaned back against the wall. “But I doubt he’ll come up with much in a couple of hours, while dealing with so many distractions. I’m sure he’s going to be wonderful company.”

“What do you hope to get from this?” Sydney burst out, frustrated. Some of her hair had fallen in front of her face, and she tossed her head back, blowing it out of the way. “You two had your little… whatever it was. He died, you went to jail, it’s done.”

“And yet here I am, and here he is,” Eli said, raising an eyebrow. “Doesn’t quite seem like things stayed finished, do they?”

“Why do you care? You got to kill him. You can’t blame him for the fact you ended up in prison.”

“No,” Eli agreed. “That was more your sister’s fault than his, admittedly.”

“And you killed her, too,” Sydney said coldly, and Eli laughed.

“Oh, no. That wasn’t me.”

Sydney looked at him, alarmed, and Eli met her gaze. She was trying to see if he was lying, he knew, and he spotted the moment that she realised he wasn’t. She looked down and frowned, looking for a moment shockingly like Serena, and then she looked back at him again. 

“So who did?”

“Come on, Sydney,” Eli said. “You’re smarter than that.”

“I don’t…”

“It’s probably the nicest thing Victor ever did for me,” Eli said, with a terse smile. “I didn’t kill Serena. He did. I didn’t expect him to tell you that, though. I never really expected him to be honest about anything.” He pushed himself away from the wall. “What did he tell you about me?”

“Why do you care?” Sydney asked, shuffling back slightly. Her back hit the wall and she took an unsteady breath. “He told me you’re the reason he went to prison.”

“Not entirely untrue.”

“He told me you shot him because he was an EO. That you said he wasn’t Victor anymore; that he was a demon in Victor’s skin. That you believed all EOs were unnatural and evil and you tried to kill him.”

“Based in a nugget of truth,” Eli said, shaking his head. “He hasn’t been entirely honest with you, has he? Does he lie to everyone in his little entourage?”

“I doubt there’s anything he could tell me that would be worse than what you are,” Sydney said firmly, and Eli looked at her, smiling.

“No?”

“No.”

“I shot Victor in self-defence,” Eli said simply, and Sydney swallowed. “I shot him because he was torturing me. I hated to do it. He was my best friend, and in the… what? Twelve hours? Can’t have been any more than that. In the twelve hours since he became an EO, he had murdered my girlfriend, broken out of prison, and returned home to stab me and torture me. That was why I called the police on him, Sydney. Because he had tortured my girlfriend to death, messing around with his fancy new powers.” He gave a harsh laugh. “And what a power to have! Torture. How fantastic. Can you blame me, for doing what I did? For believing what I do? He was my best friend. You don’t know Victor, Sydney. You know whatever’s in his place, and I know you’ve seen his cruelty.”

“He wouldn’t hurt me,” Sydney said, but her voice sounded thick again. “You’re lying.”

“Ask him,” Eli snorted. “I’m sure you’ll be able to tell if he’s lying. Or maybe you’re too scared to confront him. That would just prove my point, wouldn’t it?”

“It doesn’t make what you did OK,” Sydney said, shaking her head. “Nothing will.”

“I couldn’t care less,” Eli said, suddenly irritated. “I’m not telling you this because I’m searching for your forgiveness. I don’t expect you to understand. I’m telling you this because I think it’s about time I set the story straight about just who you’re so wholly devoted to. You’re only with him because you have nowhere else to go.”

“No,” Sydney said firmly. 

“Yes,” Eli shot back. “And he only puts up with you because he needs people around him to put on a pedestal; to admire entirely until they make the fatal mistake of being human. The higher you are in his opinion, Sydney, the harder you’re going to fall. One day he’ll be stabbing a knife through your stomach, but you won’t fare as well as I did.”

She was still shaking her head.

“Who knows him best, Sydney?” Eli asked, laughing. “Who’s seen what he’s really like?”

Sydney didn’t respond. She glared at him for a moment and then looked away, turning her head and staring at the black squares of the night sky visible through the shattered window. What was left of the curtain moved slowly in the breeze, but aside from that and the occasional whine of the wind passing through the collapsing roof upstairs, there was no sound. Eli was glad for it. There wasn’t much more he could say, and besides, he needed to think. The next few hours were likely going to be very unpleasant, and he was taking a huge risk. Not the biggest risk he had ever taken in his life, of course, but he supposed it came close. If he messed this up; if everything didn’t go exactly to plan? He was going to find himself in an even worse situation to the one he was in now. There had been a time where he had sincerely believed things couldn’t get any worse, but the intervening years had taught him that he had been idiotically naïve. Things could always get worse. There was always something left to lose. He supposed that tonight, Victor was finding that out for himself. 

An hour passed in silence, maybe more. Sydney stared out of the window the entire time, the only clue to her thoughts being the occasions where her breath would hitch or speed up slightly, only for her to force it back under control after a moment. She only moved when Eli pulled her phone out of his pocket again and switched it back on, and then she stared at it rather than at Eli, as though willing it to light up with another call. If he were honest with himself, Eli didn’t know if Victor _would_ call back or not. He would want to speak to Sydney, no doubt, but he would know that was impossible. Would he still try, or would he stubbornly reuse to give Eli another chance to taunt him? Eli watched the time in the corner of the screen as it ticked over another minute. There were only twenty minutes left. Imagining the desperation Victor was feeling was enough to loosen some of Eli’s nerves.

“He’s cutting it a little close, don’t you think?” he asked Sydney.

“I don’t care,” Sydney said, and Eli thought he could probably believe it. “If you’re going to kill me, just do it. I’m not scared. It’s not like I’ve never died before. Besides, this way of dying seems like it would be nicer anyway.”

“Icy water, huh?” Eli asked, and Sydney winced slightly.

“Did you find that out yourself, or did my sister tell you?”

“A little bit of both, really,” Eli replied. “Nasty way to go. Painful.”

“Yeah,” Sydney said dismissively. 

Eli glanced at the phone again. Five more minutes had passed, and he was beginning to wonder if Victor really was going to hold out his silence. That would be cold, Eli thought, even for Victor. Then again, he couldn’t exactly put it past the man who had murdered Angie and tortured him, so maybe he had just cut loose and run. It would be inconvenient for Eli, but he couldn’t exactly blame him. It would be the smarter option, and Victor was nothing if not smart.

But Victor didn’t disappoint. No sooner had Eli considered it, the phone lit up again, and once more Eli let it ring for a few seconds longer than necessary before he accepted the call.

“Any luck, Victor?” he asked pleasantly. “You’ve got, oh, I don’t know…” He glanced at his watch. “Eight minutes.”

“What do you want, Ever?” Victor spat. “This is nothing to do with her. If you wanted to bring me somewhere you could have just asked. Do you think I’m scared of you?”

“No, I don’t think you’re scared of me,” Eli replied. “That’s why I decided to do this. I like to hear you scared, Vic.”

“I’m not scared.”

“No? So you won’t be bothered in the slightest if I shot her now?”

“I would be annoyed because you gave me a time limit,” Victor said, through gritted teeth, “and I still have eight minutes of that time left.”

“Seven,” Eli said, and heard Victor take a sharp intake of breath. 

“You’ve never gone in for this kind of thing before,” he said, after a moment’s pause. “If you wanted to kill her you would have done it already. So why don’t you forget her and come to me instead?”

“I think you’re missing the point,” Eli said, smiling. “I’m doing this to fuck with you, Victor. I’m doing this to make things as unpleasant as I can. Perhaps I don’t even want to kill you? Perhaps I’ll kill all of them one by one, and you can be left all on your own. I think that would be a lot more fun. I might do that, actually.”

“I’m warning you –”

“What can you do, Victor?” Eli asked. “Sincerely. Right now, what the fuck can you do?”

“Don’t kill her,” Victor said, quite suddenly, and Eli paused. There had been something in his voice that he hadn’t expected to hear; due to the surprised silence, Eli thought Victor hadn’t expected to hear it, either. 

“What was that?” Eli asked, smiling at Sydney, who was watching him with wide eyes, straining to make out what Victor was saying over the line. 

“You heard me,” Victor said dismissively. In the background, Eli could hear tyres on the road again, but no one else seemed to be making any noise. 

“If you need an extension on that time limit, Victor, you better convince me that you really want it.”

“Go to hell, Cardale.”

Eli frowned at the use of the name. “You’re not endearing me to your cause.” He reached into his waistband and pulled out his gun, trapping the phone between his shoulder and cheek and making sure that Victor could hear it as he pulled the slide back and let it snap back into place. “You’re really not endearing me at all.”

“Were you always this insufferable?” Victor asked. “Or did you just have lots of time to fine-tune it in prison?”

“You’re _really_ not endearing me now,” Eli said, and abruptly he raised the gun and pointed it at Sydney, who let out a yelp and instinctively threw herself to the side. With her hands cuffed behind her back, she didn’t exactly stick the landing; she hit the floor heavily with another cry, and Eli head Victor grip the phone tighter.

“What did you do? What did you do to her? _Answer me_.”

“She’s fine,” Eli said vaguely. “But you have ten seconds to persuade me not to shoot her in, oh… three minutes?”

“You’ll do what you want regardless of what I do, Ever,” Victor growled. “Why don’t you be honest with me and tell me what you want me to do?”

Eli smiled. “I want to hear you beg.”

There was a long pause. Eli could practically hear Victor’s frustration; his humiliation. Eli had to admit, he hadn’t expected Victor to be in a car with the others at this point, but it was a very enjoyable added touch. Eli counted the seconds, and then gave a theatrical sigh.

“Well, good use of those ten seconds, Victor. I’ll be seeing you. Or maybe not.”

“Wait!”

Eli paused, the phone hallway from his ear. He raised his eyebrows at Sydney, who looked away from him abruptly as though hoping he hadn’t noticed her staring again. Eli put the phone back against his ear, savouring the way Victor had said the word. It had sounded almost _ragged_.

“I’m listening.”

“I don’t know _how_ ,” Victor said tightly. “I can’t say I have much experience.”

“You’re smart,” Eli said. “You’ll learn.”

“I hate you,” Victor said, and it sounded almost pathetic; helpless: like a child realising he couldn’t win.

“Yes, you did mention that one or two times,” Eli replied. “But if you don’t want to try…”

“Alright, alright,” Victor said quickly.

“Oh, and Victor?”

“What?”

“You have to mean it.”

Victor had never begged for anyone before. This, Eli was certain of. Victor had never even begged for himself; it had never been in his nature. He had never done anything even close to it – nothing that would undermine himself, nothing that he would see as a betrayal of himself. In college, Eli had never had a problem with ass-kissing or flattering his professors here and there to get something he wanted or to make life easier for himself; on some occasions he had even been alright with throwing himself on the mercy of them when deadlines or other commitments became impossible. Eli knew he didn’t _have_ to; he didn’t need their help, he could do it on his own and he had no doubt about that, but sometimes it was nice to have the breathing room, or to win his professors over for an easier life. It was fun for Eli; nothing more.

Victor had despised the very thought of it. He had never said anything to Eli about it; never implied that he thought less of him for it, but Eli had seen the way his lip would curl slightly, seen the way he would look away with a shake of his head when Eli started laying it on thick. That had been part of the fun for Eli: Victor was so delightful to rile up like that. Sometimes Eli would even do it to him, too, and those were the only times where Victor would snap at him and tell him to knock it off. Victor himself had never even come close to such a thing. He had always preferred to suffer through everything even when it was impossible, and Eli knew he had even taken a few penalties here and there for the sole reason that there were only twenty-four hours in a day, and Victor was too proud to ask for a couple of extra. Even when it hadn’t been his fault in the slightest, Eli had thought he would rather die than ask a professor to turn a blind eye to his submitting a paper half an hour late. Eli had spent no small amount of time wondering why Victor was like that, but he had never come up with any satisfactory conclusions. 

Needless to say, Eli was surprised to hear the sincerity in Victor’s voice when he finally made himself speak again.

“Don’t kill her,” he said, his voice forcibly even. There was a tremor of something under it – Eli was sure it was anger – but he kept it under control even if Eli could hear the effort it was taking him. “Not yet. Not tonight. You’re doing this to get to me and it worked. You won, Eli. This round, you won. You don’t have to do anything else right now.”

Eli stayed silent. It was a trick he had learned in prison, if he were honest. Stell had sworn by it. The longer a silence went on, the more a person would want to fill it. That was how numerous confessions had been wrung out of people, Eli knew, and it proved frighteningly effective. Victor, it seemed, was no different. 

“What do you want?” he asked. “A fair fight? As fair as it can be, anyway. I can do that. I don’t need to use what I can do. Or what anyone else can do, for that matter. Set the terms, I don’t care. Just don’t kill her.”

Eli looked at his watch. There was less than a minute to go. It was tempting to shoot her anyway, while Victor was still on the phone, but it was all a delicate balance. Eli needed Victor to get here hatefully angry at him, but not so furious that he demanded immediate gratification. No, Eli needed him to want to draw it out a bit. He gave a small shake of his head. Perhaps they were right about him, when they said he was a nutcase.

“Eli,” Victor said, as the second hand ticked closer to midnight. “ _Please_.”

Eli smiled. “I’ll think about it.”

He hung up again, but this time he didn’t switch the phone off. He put the gun back into his waistband and opened the messages instead, and with quick fingers tapped out a series of numbers and hit send: coordinates. He stared at the message until he went through, and then he put the phone back into his pocket and looked at Sydney, who watched him back, her breathing ragged.

“This is going to hurt,” he told her, and her eyes widened slightly. Eli laughed. “Oh, no. Not you. Me.”

“What are you doing?” she asked, and then she laughed as well. “My God. You’re absolutely insane.”

“You know, I hear that a surprising amount.”

“You don’t stop to think about the fact that if loads of people are telling you something, it might be true?”

“Sometimes. But a lot of people have been called insane in the past, and then it turned out they were onto something.”

“Somehow I don’t think that’s applicable here,” Sydney said, rolling her eyes, and Eli laughed again.

“You really do take after him, don’t you?” he asked, and she narrowed her eyes slightly. “That’s Victor’s eyeroll.”

He didn’t miss the way she looked a little proud to hear him say that.

Eli hadn’t expected to have to wait long, but he was still surprised at the short amount of time it took. He had been hoping to brace himself a little, even if he was aware of the fact he likely wouldn’t get the chance; Victor had no intention of playing fair, Eli was sure, but he had hoped to at least try to prepare himself. That was the problem with what Victor could do: no matter how much Eli tried to remember what it felt like, he could never quite do it justice. He could prepare himself for the red-hot pain of being stabbed, or the sickening punch that a bullet left. He couldn’t prepare himself for the feeling of every single one of his nerves igniting in agony, but part of the preparation was in trying. At least he could then say he had. 

It happened unbelievably suddenly. Eli had enough time to register the look of surprise and relief on Sydney’s face but not enough time for his brain to connect with what that meant. Somewhere in the nanoseconds between seeing it and when the thought would ordinarily hit him, everything simply went white-hot with pain. Eli didn’t even have the breath to scream. He went down hard, the impact against the floor not even registering compared with the rest of it, and then he was aware of someone rolling him onto his back and searching his pockets, pulling out Sydney’s phone and the gun from his waistband, searching his jacket but miraculously ignoring the pockets on his pants. Eli found he couldn’t actually see anything; his vision had gone completely white.

The pain lessened, ever so slightly; enough that Eli was able to scream. Someone grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him hard enough that his head hit against the floor; the points of contact hurt with more intensity, even the fingers brushing against his skin feeling molten. 

“Shut up. Shut up!” The pain lessened enough that Eli could stop screaming; he gasped for breath, his entire body trembling. His vision cleared slightly and he saw it was Victor who was crouched over him, leaning on one knee and looking at him with revulsion. “Where’s the key? The cuffs. Where have you put the key?”

Eli looked at him blankly, briefly struggling to understand. 

“Look harder,” he finally choked out, and Victor let go of him, pushing himself away, disgusted. Eli rolled onto his front, but it was as far as he got before the pain hit him again, knocking him flat. When he screamed, it already sounded ragged. 

“You scream like you’re surprised,” Victor said, stepping closer again. “How did you think this would end, Ever?”

He kicked him, and the impact felt like the force of a sledgehammer. For a brief moment, Eli didn’t even feel human.

“Victor.” Someone else spoke – possibly Mitch. Eli was only vaguely aware. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t deal with him right now,” Victor replied, his voice trembling, and in the brief moment before Victor drove the knife through the back of Eli’s skull, Eli caught a glimpse of Sydney’s pale face. She looked, Eli thought, as the world exploded into pain and then darkness, terrified. 

Eli didn’t die, of course, but he also wasn’t exactly present. He would have stayed like that indefinitely had Victor left him there, but Victor had no intention of doing such a thing. Had Eli been capable of it, he would have smiled. They put him in the trunk, the knife still sticking out of the back of his head, and they still didn’t find the phone in his pants pocket. When they finally left, the sound of the car on the road muffled the incessant ringing of the phone, and had Eli been aware of that he would have laughed. The calls grew more incessant as the minutes past, and by the grace of God, when they arrived at the motel where they were going to spend the night, they left Eli in the trunk. The calls to the phone continued to go unheard, and had Eli been conscious, he would have known one more thing for sure: this was going to be plenty of time for Stell to make use of the phone’s tracker.


End file.
